


Ice Fishing!

by HDMI_Cable_Core



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Family, Camping, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia probably, Tubbo's adopted, Wow this summary is a hot mess, does this count as hurt/comfort, it doesn't come up but he is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28323135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HDMI_Cable_Core/pseuds/HDMI_Cable_Core
Summary: “A camping trip?” The captain asked incredulously. He wasn’t opposed to the idea, not inherently. It just… well. “In the middle of December?”Tubbo nodded, seemingly unfazed by any of the implications of this. “Mhm”“Why?”“Ice fishing!” He exclaimed as he shoved some sort of picture book into his hands. The captain was about to list the many, many reasons why camping in the middle of December was a terrible idea. Tubbo however had planned for that."It'd make a good birthday present" and even before the final nail in the coffin, the captain knows he's already lost. "And Christmas"
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | tubbo & Captainsparklez
Comments: 3
Kudos: 68
Collections: Secret Santa.





	Ice Fishing!

**Author's Note:**

> AHAHAHAHAHAH
> 
> I wrote this in like 4 hours  
> H e l p m e

A father son camp out for Tubbo’s birthday had sounded like a wonderful idea.

_Had._

_Three days ago._

Now the captain was trudging through far too much snow, in the middle of a freak snow storm that he would swear he knew would happen. Even if the forecast had been relatively clear for the middle of winter.

“Tubbo!” He called as he pushed through unrealistically rapidly accumulating snow. They’d spent a while sitting on the lake, Tubbo rattling off random fish facts as they managed to catch unsurprisingly nothing. But eventually the cold had caught up with the captain, and he’d told Tubbo he’d go back to the camp to make dinner.

That was 4 hours ago.

He silently cursed the decision to set up camp so far from the lake. Sure, it was closer to the car but at what cost? He’d been walking for 15 minutes already, and he wasn’t sure he was even halfway there. Not to mention it was dark now, the sun having gone down over an hours ago. And as the icing on the cake, Tubbo had only a few jackets with him out there. The captain rubbed his hands together as he walked in an attempt to warm them, the flashlight he’d brought sitting in his pocket. He was so focused on trying to make out the trees in front of him, that when his foot caught on a rather strangely shaped tree root, he nearly toppled over.

“Dang it-” he thankfully caught himself, not particularly wanting to walk the rest of the way covered in snow. He realized two things as he turned to see what he’d tripped on. First, that the snow was far too high for him to be able to tell. Second, as he reached down to pick it up, that it was the camping chair Tubbo had been sitting on earlier. “Tubbo?” He started to dig through the nearby snow, his growing suspicions being confirmed with each new piece of equipment he unearthed. The fishing pole, the second chair. Oh god, he’d tried to carry everything back by himself hadn’t he.

He kept digging, ignoring the way the snow bit at his hands with every handful. (He really should’ve bought gloves) “Tubbo please-” he wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to find him. Scared of what state he’d be in when he did. However, the anxiety of not knowing where he was was definfar worse. He’d amassed a sizable pile of snow before finally, finally his hand found an arm amidst the snow. That had to be him. The instant his hand made contact, the captain started digging faster, doing his best to uncover the 16 year old beneath the snow. (Which, thankfully, was indeed Tubbo)

He feared for a moment, that he was dead. Until Tubbo’s eyes slowly opened. “Captain!” He exclaimed with a drowsy smile. 

“Oh thank God'' relief flooded over him as he pulled his shivering son into a hug. Tubbo didn’t reciprocate (perhaps he couldn’t) and instead went limp in his arms. “Tubbo what are you doing out here?” He knows, in theory, why he’s here. And he knows deep down it’s his fault. But try as he might he couldn’t find anything else to say.

“I was bringing the stuff back to camp,” Tubbo explained, his speech slurred as he tried to explain himself. “Mmm..” he buried his face in the captain’s shoulder, seemingly unbothered by the bitter cold surrounding them despite his shivering. 

“Oh Tubbo..” this was bad, very bad. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do now, having never dealt with this sort of thing before. But he knew if he didn’t do something soon this could be serious. “How long have you been out here?” He pulls a half asleep Tubbo away from him, hands on his shoulders to make sure he doesn’t fall over. He takes his flashlight out of his pocket to he can check for injuries as his son tries to talk.

“Well we went out on the..” he started, each word blending into the one before it and consonants dropping off at seemingly random times.

“On the lake, yes that’s right.” It wasn't the information he needed, but at least he was talking to him.

“And then we..” his head dipped for a moment, as if he'd fallen asleep before he picked it back up again. “We went.. no you went…” he blinked “back to camp you..”

“Then what did you do?” He coaxed. He turned on the flashlight, checking his arms for any sort of injury. He seemed to be unharmed, though his legs were still buried in the snow. 

“I went to.. I picked up the stuff!” He sounded proud of himself. The captain nodded.

“Then what?” He shone the flashlight at his face, thankfully he didn’t look too scratched up considering he’d found him on the forest floor. Tubbo shut his eyes.

“Bright.. ‘s too bright” he whined, he clumsily tried to bring his hands up to cover his eyes. His fingers were bright red. 

“Hey- hey” he set the flashlight down in the snow beside them. It was still on, so hopefully he wouldn’t lose track of it. “The light’s gone now, okay?” Tubbo mumbled something unintelligible, and the captain shook his shoulders. “Tubbo, look at me.” He commanded, and the boy’s eyes fluttered open once more. “I need you to stay awake for me, okay?”

He received only a blank stare in return confusion filling his face before finally, Tubbo nodded. “Mm awake. ...awake, I can..” 

“What did you do after I left?” The captain asked again. He removed his hands from his shoulders so he could use them to start shoveling the snow off of Tubbo’s legs. There were only a few inches of snow on them, but the fact it was enough to cover him at all was worrying.

“I gathered the..” he only managed to sit up on his own for a few moments, before he fell forward. He landed draped across the captain’s back, and he buried his face in the large coat he was wearing. He continued to talk, but the slurred speech along with it being muffled by the coat made it entirely unintelligible.

“Tubbo-” he tried his best to get up without throwing the boy off of him, but he still ended up laying in the snow. He tried his very best not to panic. His son was still awake, probably, and he’d already found him. This could be worse.

“ ‘s cold” Tubbo mumbled, and the Captain realized he should probably give him his coat. He quickly took off the coat, thankful he’d opted for long sleeves underneath. He put a hand behind his son’s back, helping him to sit up once again as he offered him the coat. Instead of putting it on he simply latched onto it, hugging it much like a child would a stuffed animal. It almost hurt the captain to take the coat away.

“Wear this” he ignored his whines in protest as he took the large coat out of his arms, carefully guiding Tubbo’s arms into the sleeves (a simple task with how limp he was) before zipping up the coat. In the end he didn’t seem to be too upset about not being able to hold the coat, despite his initial protest. “Can you..” no, he almost definitely could not walk.

“Mm?” He made a noise that sounded vaguely questioning, though the captain couldn’t be sure he’d even heard him.

“Hold on, Tubbo” he put one arm under his legs, and the other around his shoulders. Thankful, for once, for his son’s sporadic eating habits as he managed to pick him up. “We’re going home.” Or, more likely, the hospital. Regardless however, they were definitely going to cut their trip short.

Tubbo laughed, a quiet, delirious chuckle as the captain picked him up. He started back towards the camp, and more importantly the car. “What’s so funny Tubbo?” He asked in a voice he hadn’t used since his son was a small child. It didn’t really matter to him, what was important was that he kept talking.

“Hi captain,” he said in response. His head rolled forward and he yawned. “ m’ hands hurt” Tubbo mumbled quietly, and he remembered just how bright red they’d looked under the flashlight.

“Shoot- the flashlight” he realized. He’d left it on , but somehow that hadn’t stopped him from forgetting it. Should he go back for it? He looked down at his still shivering son in his arms, who had once again buried his face in his chest. No, there was no time. He trudged onward through at least 10 inches of snow.

“ ‘s warm..” He heard Tubbo mumble into his shirt. Good, good. Maybe it’d be enough to keep him awake.

“Hang in there Duckling, we’re close to camp” the old nickname, another relic from Tubbo’s childhood slipped out without much thought. He didn’t have time to think about it however. The rest of the now ten minute walk passed far slower than he would’ve liked. It was hard to get Tubbo to answer any of his questions, coherently or not. And by the time they actually reached the car the captain was shivering along with him. God it was cold.

He loaded Tubbo into the passenger's seat of the car, turning on the car and more importantly, the heater. Tubbo whined once again as he put him down, but overall he was met with little resistance as he did the buckle, both for safety and to help him remain upright. He then made sure the buckle wouldn’t come undone before looping around to the other side of the car to get in the driver's seat. 

He breathed out as he gripped the steering wheel. Okay, this was fine. The car was starting to heat up, they were going to be fine. He looked over at Tubbo sitting in the seat beside him, “we’re gonna get you to the hospital, okay?” He reached over and shook his shoulder. “Okay?”

It was obvious he was struggling as he turned his head to look at him. His eyes blinking repeatedly as if he was trying to clear his vision. Maybe he was. “Mmmhm” Reluctantly the captain turned away from him, glancing into the rear view mirror to make sure there was nothing behind him before starting to back up the car.

Or at least, he tried to.

It occurred to him, only now, that there were multiple complications to having nearly 10 inches of snow on the ground. Which of course, included it being nearly impossible to drive anywhere. Dear God. He looked over at Tubbo again. He knew he wouldn’t die. He hadn’t by now, and the car was actively warming up around them. That didn’t mean however, that any of this was ideal. With little other options coming to mind, he tried to call an emergency hotline.

His phone still worked, thankfully. He explained the situation to the woman on the other end of the telephone, explaining his symptoms and saying he thought his son needed medical attention. The woman on the other end seemed regretful to inform him that due to the freak snow storm accidents on the road were through the roof. And on top of that it would take quite a while to get anywhere, much less to a camping site. She told him, however, that they’d do what they could to get to him by the next morning. And that if possible he should just keep Tubbo awake and warm until then.

“Heyy there Duckling” he said quietly, reaching over again to rest his hand against his forehead. It was cold to the touch, so at least he didn’t have a fever. “how you feeling?” 

Tubbo, who he wasn’t sure could even hear him, groaned quietly. “Mmm, hurts..” he said.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Hands” he mumbles, along with a few other word-like sounds he can’t quite understand. The captain grabbed one of his arms and pulled his hand across the armrest in the middle. The woman had told him not to rub his skin in case his blood had frozen, and so he just held his hand.

“Is this any better?” He asked, and Tubbo’s head fell back against the seat.

“Captainnn” he yawned “ ‘m tired” 

“I need you to stay awake for me” he reached out to grab the other hand, holding both of them in his own on top of the armrest. They were still concerningly red, but hopefully better(?). “Just for a few more hours, okay?”

“Sleepyyy” he whined in response, the annoyance in his voice clear. “I wanna sleepppp”

“I know, I know. You can soon” The captain reassured him. He needed to keep his mind off sleeping. “Did you have fun fishing?”

Tubbo seemed to perk up at this. “Fishing!” He exclaimed, certainly louder than the captain had been expecting. “We went fishing!” The captain nodded.

“Mhm, that's right. We went fishing. Did you have a good time?”

“I like fishing,” Tubbo said, and he noted it was the most coherent response he’d gotten that night. “There aren’t any fish though”

The captain gave a quiet huff, bordering on a laugh. Tubbo had insisted they be able to catch one within the first few hours, but by the time the captain left their efforts had still yielded no results. “I’m sure the fish were just hiding, Duckling” he knew he would have to drop the nickname once Tubbo came back to his senses. But for now Tubbo responded to it, so it was alright.

“The fish were all asleep” He said finally, as if he’d made a decision. “The fish like to sleep in the cold.”

“Why’s that?”

“ ‘Cause then they get fish blankets, so they don’t get cold.” The captain laughed quietly, as distressing as the whole situation was the conversation somehow helped him feel a bit better.

“And do they have fish beds?”

“No, the fish sleep on the floor”

They continued to talk about whatever nonsensical topic Tubbo’s brain brought him to. Tubbo going off on random tangents and the captain simply nodding along and encouraging him to keep talking. The morning came quicker than he expected it to, an emergency vehicle finally arriving at around 4 in the morning. He wasn’t as worried about Tubbo at this point, having been able to carry on a conversation with him for the past 5+ hours. That didn’t mean however that he passed up the opportunity for him to be taken to the hospital. Tubbo was reluctant to get out of the car, stumbling and nearly falling into the snow when he tried. But in the end they managed.

The medic sat in the back with both of them, Tubbo leaning on the captain after he sat down next to. After doing a check to make sure he would be fine, and the captain asking permission, he was finally allowed to fall asleep. 

Tubbo yawned quietly, his head against the captain’s shoulder as his eyes fell shut. “G’night Captain” he mumbled, and the captain in question smiled. Tubbo was safe now, he was going to be ok. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of Tubbo’s head.

“Goodnight, Duckling.”

**Author's Note:**

> I stole the duckling nickname from another Captain & Tubbo fic cause I thought it was cute. Ty for reading!


End file.
